Mass Murder Jurors Get|a Look at Holmes’ Mind

DENVER (CN) – Jurors in James Holmes’ mass murder trial Thursday saw the last four of 22 hours of videotape from the accused “Batman” movie killer’s psychological interview. The 2014 footage shows a bearded Holmes being interviewed by Dr. William Reid. It is the only psychological examination of Holmes that was recorded. It was showed to the jury in Arapahoe County District Court this week in Holmes’ trial on multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. Reid, a clinical and forensic psychiatrist, testified that he believed Holmes was legally sane when he killed 12 people and wounded dozens at an Aurora movie theater on July 20, 2012. Reid says he does not doubt that Holmes is and was mentally ill, but that he was sane enough to know that what he was doing was wrong. “There’s a strong implication he wants to be stopped from doing something wrong,” Reid testified. “Whatever he suffered from, it did not prevent him from forming the intent and knowing what he was doing and the consequences of what he was doing.” The footage revealed to the jury some private aspects of the case, including Holmes’ admission that he knew that he was doing something wrong when he planned the massacre, and that to avoid being stopped he did not disclose his thoughts or plans to his therapists, friends, or family. “It suggests that he knew that he was doing something wrong or planning something wrong,” Reid said. Prosecutors, led by Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler, seeks to persuade the jury that Holmes put enough planning into the shooting to prove culpability. The defense team claims Holmes is not guilty for reason of insanity. In the footage, Holmes discloses details of his thought process, including his decision to go to the “Dark Knight Rises” film because it was PG-13, because he thinks that “it’s wrong to kill children.” Some aspects of the footage could help the defense, as Holmes sticks to his story that he shot theatergoers as part of a “mission” – an alleged manifestation of his schizophrenia. “It wasn’t malicious,” Holmes tells Reid in the interview when asked about his intent. “[It was] to complete the mission.” He finally describes his actions in the theater as more of a “need as opposed to want.” Holmes’ public defender Daniel King put the issue in a different context in questioning Reid in court, asking if it would be correct to say that “absent to [Holmes’] mental condition, we would not be here today.” Reid agreed that statement was “correct.” Holmes also admitted in the taped interview that upon leaving the theater he saw several people who were still alive, but did not shoot them. “I felt that I had shot enough people,” Holmes said in the last few hours of footage. “I considered the mission over.” King’s cross-examination of Reid was to continue Friday.